Northern Regional Prison meeting at Westbury cost council thousands

The cost to ratepayers for a public meeting on the Northern Regional Prison has now been revealed, as an alternative site for the jail is proposed. LATEST >>

The public meeting on the Northern Regional Prison cost the Meander Valley Council more than $9000 to hold.

A total of 209 people attended the meeting in Deloraine on August 11, with 538 people watching the meeting via live stream.

The agenda for the first council meeting of the Meander Valley Council since the public meeting reveals the cost to council, excluding labour, for the public meeting was $9,147.36.

“That’s the logistical cost, chair hire, live streaming costs, the costs associated with ensuring the facility is Covid compliant, staff costings and advertising to the public,” Meander Valley Council General Manager John Jordan said.

Mr Jordan said the large proportion of the cost was for live streaming.

“We wouldn’t normally live stream a public meeting, but we wanted to ensure the information was readily available,” he said.

A total of 86 written submissions made ahead of the meeting 84 against the proposal and 2 in favour.

Community members who attended Meander Valley Council meeting calling for public meeting on Northern Regional Prison. Picture: Rosemary Murphy

It was held after a petition with more than 800 signatures was presented to council by Anne-Marie Loader from the Westbury Region Against the Prison group (WRAP).

“It was well conducted, the public was really well behaved and respectful, from council’s point of view we’re very happy with how it went,” Mr Jordan said.

The proposed site for the prison is on Crown land on Birralee Rd at Brushy Rivulet about 5.2km from the Westbury.

During the public meeting Meander Valley Mayor Wayne Johnston said it was “probably a failure of council” when asked why a poll wasn’t undertaken of Westbury residents about if they wanted the prison in the area.

A motion was raised by WRAP spokeswoman Linda Poulton for council to revoke its past support of the prison, for an independent study on the socio-economic benefits to the community to be held and provided for community consultation.

A total of 122 people voted in support of the motion, 22 against, and 65 abstained from the vote.

As a result of the public meeting the Meander Valley Council will consider at its meeting on Tuesday recommendations including writing to the Tasmanian government to advocate for a review and update of the socio-economic and environmental studies of the site and for further engagement with the community when due diligence information is available and before final decisions are made.

The Ashley Youth Detention Centre, which is set to close in the next three years, has been raised as a possible alternative to the site.